starterpack

Yikers, it's been a while. Guess who got sandwiched between Bad Brain Month and accidental!gluten? But I'm on my feet now, will try to knock these out.

Next post I'll be covering how to find people/content on dw, but this round I'll focus on how you set up your space to make a good/clear impression.

Userpics
With a free account, you can upload as many as fifteen userpics(icons/avatars/what have you), though some only have one, and that's ok too! Whenever you make a post or comment on something, your icon is right there next to your username, and they're great for showing off your mood, or just your fave fandom honey. Really opens up a different avenue for expressing yourself in a fun way.

But like I said, just having a default icon is a ok too ♥

A few places you can find userpics:
icons - multi-fandom and stock icon community.
comicbook_icons - What it says on the tin.
smallbatchicons - multi-user community where makers post 5 icon batches on a theme of their choosing.
If you find a maker you really like, you can always subscribe to their personal community =)

All of these communities are well-tagged, making it easier to find what you're looking for. (adding /tag to the URL takes you to their list of tags for easy browsing)

But how do I do the thing?


On the dw homepage, you'll find Upload Icons in the upper left corner, Create/Upload Icons.


1: choose a 100x100/60kb or less icon from your computer, or copy the URL of an icon.
2: The keyword is what you see when choosing an icon in the dropdown menu.
3: People usually input the maker's credit here + poetry/lyric snippets/quotes/etc for funsies if you want.
4: Description of the icon, doesn't have to be fancy.


Voila! You have a fun page of userpics people can snoop into *g*

Userpics gives other people an insight into what fandoms/characters/interests you're into, and as a bonus they're just pretty to look at. In most layouts, clicking a user's icon will bring you directly to their userpics page. Happy icon looting!

Introducing myself via tiny images? Bit like interpretive dance, innit?

That's where an intro post/your profile comes in.

When you click someone's journal, you'll often see an About Me post stickied to the top. This is a very handy tool for letting people know who you are, what your journal is about, and what your approach to friending/following is. To sticky a post you go to Organize/Manage Account/Display, scroll down and you'll see a box that says IDs or URLs of Sticky Entries.

Examples of things to list:
Short introduction.
Why you're here.
Where you've been in the past on social platforms, where you are now.
What your current interests are.
Do you auto-follow back? Would you prefer people introduce themselves?
If you make fanworks, what's your transformative works policy?

Example A. Example B. Example C. Example D.

You can also input a small list of information on your profile page. Some do one or the other, some do both. Dreamwidth also lets you list various other social accounts in your profile, Create/Edit Profile, or click the edit button on your profile page. Under Contact Information you can input your username on a wide variety of platforms, and the link will be in your bio.


I'll be linking some profile codes in this entry's Side Quests, if you'd like to prettify things a bit.

How do I link to accounts on other sites?
For userpic credits,
<user name="NAME" site="twitter/lj/ao3/tumblr/etc">
In comments and entries,
@USERNAME.twitter/lj/ao3/tumblr/etc

As always, ask away if you have questions ♥
(side quests not up yet)

Welcome to starterpack ❤️

The goal of this place is to guide new Dreamwidth users, or people new to journaling in general, so the process of trying a new platform doesn't become too overwhelming.

Dreamwidth is a wonderful blogging platform, and the site has been built by fans for fans. No corporate overlords placating advertisers or stealing your data. Even free accounts are ad-free!

My favorite aspects of Dreamwidth?
* Dreamwidth's diversity statement.
* Communities!
* So. Many. Userpics.
* Full control of who sees what. Public, private, or friends only posts. The ability to have sub-groups within friends only.
* I feel entirely safe there won't be any strikethroughs/nipplegates/etc.

I'll be making a new post with an activity every two or three days, with additional side quests added in between for those with a bit more time on their hands. Every post a bite-sized chunk that won't take very long to complete, to make it as manageable as possible. By the end I hope more people will feel they get how dreamwidth works, and have found a bit of community for themselves and learned the tools to expand on that if they wish.

Now for Day One: we're making our account \o/

You're here, on Dreamwidth. Click the logo in the upper left corner.

You're now on the dw home page, and click Create Free Account. You pick your journal name, password, etc. Next page gives you various things to fill out, but we'll cover that in later updates so feel free to walk on by. Choose no thanks to the paid account on the third page.

YOU DONE DID IT. Welcome to Dreamwidth ☺️

Today's side quest?
A bit of a cheat, as I have two. One, subscribe to this journal so the new entries show up in your Circle/Reading Page.
Two, to get started on posting, maybe give others a bit of an idea as to who you are, I put together a small collection of memes. Do whichever ones appeal to you :) (my memory is absolute shit, so I love having End Of Year posts to look back on)

Feel free to introduce yourselves in the comments 🙌🙌🙌

STEP TWO HERE